Anonymous to Sony: We Don’t Condone Credit Card Theft

Yesterday Sony told a U.S. House of Representatives Committee that the culprits behind the PlayStation Network outages were none other than hacker collective Anonymous, the group responsible for the takedowns of websites like Visa.com and Westboro Baptist Church late last year. But the puzzling saga took another sharp turn this morning when a press release by the group added a new wrinkle to the case: “[We] don’t condone credit card theft.”

Citing inconsistencies with their ‘modus operandi’ to gain favor with the general public, Anonymous states: “Public support is not gained by stealing credit card info and personal identities, we are trying to fight criminal activities by corporations and governments, not steal credit cards.”

VentureBeat, however, points out that the press release doesn’t explicitly deny involvement with the takedown itself, only that they have denied involvement with the reported credit card thefts.

Many have speculated that the decentralized hacktivist group — who operate under the tag “We are Legion” — were responsible for the attacks after Sony took legal action against hacker George “GeoHot” Hotz for publishing PS3 jailbreaking tools online.

The PlayStation Network was first attacked on April 19th and has been down for about two weeks. Over 77 million sadfaced subscribers have yet to feel the heft of their thumbsticks over multiplayer as the single biggest “whodunnit?” in gaming history trudges forward, however slowly.